The team was very much needed today - more food then ever (good) and we all got a good workout and sense of achievement by volunteering for this worthy charity. Well done all !

In 2024 Library of Things celebrates 10 years of making borrowing useful household items available for everyone in the area. It's cheaper than buying, convenient and kinder for the planet.

This year, Ealing Broadway became yet another of the 19 locations. Shortly after the launch of the new spot, Ealing folk has been renting on average 30 library items per week: drills, sewing machines, saws, hedge trimmers, and audience favourites: the steam cleaner and pressure washer!

Could this get any better? Of course! More people could learn about this fantastic initiative. Kyra from the Library of Things met five GoodGymers at the Ealing Broadway shopping centre, which transformed over the weekend into a Christmas market. The temperatures dropped so much this week that no one doubted we entered the winter season. Kyra was very pleased to see that our team braved the cold to support the Library of Things in spreading the word about the new location.

Supplied with stacks of leaflets, walkers Chris, Kash and Sevan, runner Mohamed and cyclist Gus teamed up with Kyra for a walking task on the streets towards Ealing Common. Keeping hands warm while trying to separate the individual leaflets was a challenge. Luckily, no fingers were frostbitten or dog-bitten during the flyer delivery. By the end of the session, only a thin stack of leaflets remained, which GoodGymers promised to deliver with a bunch of extra flyers to other towns in the borough at the nearest occasion.

We are hoping that Ealing residents will forget Black Friday and swap the shopping craze for more sustainable renting things binge!

Last month saw GoodGym Ealing and Ealing Greenwayers teaming up to hack their way through the overgrown jungle of brambles, nettles and fallen trees to the heart of Pear Tree Park. The goal was to create a riverside walkway for the visitors entering the park from the southeast corner.

Just like the Romans paved their way through Britain by laying roads made of stone, the GoodGymers created many paths in Ealing by spreading woodchip on walkways across the borough. Even though the GoodGym ways are not the ones to survive for generations, they do the job by letting you enjoy the parks without getting muddy shoes in the winter.

Today's session had a record number of volunteers, including a group of Walpole Park volunteer gardeners recruited by Richard, the Greenwayers' leader. GoodGymers came in strong too: a team of six with a guest from Greenwich Khay, a neighbour from Hounslow Gus and a new starter introduced to us by Richard.

With slashers and shears to raze any pesky nettles sticking out, shovels and barrows to transport the woodchip and rakes to make the path surface smooth, we used up all the material in less than 90 minutes to cover the walkway and bring civilisation into Pear Tree Park. Let the words of a dog walker passing by be the testimony of our joint achievement:

This is going to be revolutionary!

This morning's Pitshanger Junior parkrun had a glut of volunteers. In fact the run director, Karen, was heard to say:

"We have so many volunteers today that we have a page 2!"

As there were so many helpers, the 3 GoodGymers all ended up at the same marshal post. Each took different routes to get there. One was signed up as a marshal on the roster, one hadn't signed up and the other one was running late and arrived after the runners had set off. They grouped together to give the children and parents and extra loud cheer at the first/last marshal point on the course.

86 children in all finished the course and there were almost as many adults running the 2km too. Impressively, one child counted 25 high fives on their way round from 8 official marshal points.

After a quick refuel, Kash and Sevan headed onto the day's next task woodchipping a new path at Pear Tree Park.

Another good session today for Jacquie Started on teas, helped serve food, wash up, give out food parcels and then clearing up. So a bit of everything. Meal was cauliflower and Stilton soup then Shepherds pie (meat or veg) with Swissroll for dessert. It was very well received.

We are back for our final session of the year! GoodGym x Brompton were together again this month making a difference in the local community as a group of 15 Brompton volunteers across 2 cohorts headed to Horsenden Farm to help out.

The group set off from Brompton HQ with the threat of sunshine breaking through the clouds and made our way down the canal to the farm and home of the Gruffalo (see pic). Elsa briefed us on the task ahead - shifting all the logs from the top paddock in order to clear it for the ponies who are incoming soon! The group grabbed shovels and wheelbarrows and headed down to bring as much wood over to be split for kindling as well as putting the dried bramble on the dead hedge.

While the group moved back and forth with barrows full of logs one person would stay behind at the log-pile and use the wood splitter (no axes due to health and safety I'm afraid!), splitting as many logs as possible into quarters to be stacked in the pile and used at a later date.

By the end of the session pretty much every log had been shifted, boulders also moved and brambles built into the hedge and so it was time to hand back our gloves, say goodbye to the boys (the billy goats) and head back down the canal to base.

A big thank you to everyone for all the great work and wishing you all a great end to the year! :0)